Background

Key Takeaways

The challenge with a conference like this is you can't do it all! Here were a few highlights.

Site Tours

The site tours were an opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at a contact center's operations. There were several to choose from including Zappos, Las Vegas Valley Water District, and Global Experience Specialists.

The Global Experience Specialists (or GES) tour was verify informative. They are a full service provider for live events. They provide a wide array of services such as managing trade shows, special retail events, and museum exhibitions.

GES knows that empathy comes from having a relatable experience, but most of their contact center agents have never set-up a trade show. So, they incorporate a mock trade show set-up into their training program. They also have new hires attend a live trade show so they understand what their customers are experiencing.

They were helping to manage the ICMI event too:

New Data

On Tuesday, Brad Cleveland opened the keynote session with an interesting exercise. He asked the audience to answer a few questions using a live polling feature in the conference app. One poll was surprising - participants said they'd prioritize a technology upgrade over improving the quality of their people, strategy, or organizational support.

On Wednesday, ICMI's Justin Robbins announced the publication of a free ebook on contact center metrics. It's designed to help you identify and manage the key performance indicators that are best for your contact center. You can download your copy here.

Innovation

The conference also showcases innovative ideas from award-winning contact centers. Here are a few examples:

Cars.com forecasts attrition and hires agents earlier than needed so they can be trained and ready to go by the time they're necessary.

AICPA has offered agents 1 - 2 additional breaks per shift, which helps to keep them focused and fresh while serving customers.

Intuit has agents lead calibration exercises so their perspective is incorporated into the process.

ICMI is now accepting applications for their 2016 contact center awards. You can learn more and apply here.

Upcoming Conferences

ICMI's next conference will be the Contact Center Expo & Conference event in Long Beach, May 10 - 13. Registration is now open and you can save $500 on your conference fee if you register by December 31.